Tripoli, 5 May 2014:
Prison officials from across Libya are taking part in a three-day training course to boost awareness of human . . .[restrict]rights and how to ensure the humane treatment of detainees held in facilities across the country.
Fifty officials from the Judicial Police, the Department for Combating Illegal Immigration and the Military Police are taking part in the training, which is being run by international experts on the training of personnel on prison management and UN minimum rules for the treatment of detainees.
Organised by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), the three day course, which started yesterday, also looks at the importance of building the capacity of state institutions to guarantee the humane treatment of detainees.
“Prisons across Libya remain largely unregulated and vulnerable to corruption, and prison management and personnel are often eager for professional training but do not know where to turn,” OMCT said. “The goal for this workshop is to build ground-level buy-in to the idea that torture is never acceptable.”
Topics include the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment according to regional, national and international law, the rights of detainees and the importance of due process, and proper procedures for arrest and investigation. Obligations relating to the use of force and firearms, and the ethical responsibility to refuse illegal orders will also be covered during the course.
“This training is as much about the rule of law as it is about basic common sense,” said OMCT’s regional advisor Currun Singh. “The question here is, how do we get detention centres under state control operating to minimal standards and how can we help the people running these detention centers to make that happen?”
OMCT has been working in Libya as part of national anti-torture project documenting violations of human rights and increasing access to justice for vulnerable people since February 2012.
Despite some progress, the organisation said there were still many people held in Libyan detention facilities who were under the threat of torture. “OMCT is redoubling its energies to prevent torture at the source, by assisting the Libyan state to formalise and professionalise its security sector. [/restrict]
